NSGIC Conference Report 3

This entry will cover Wednesday and Thursday (days 4 and 5) of the NSGIC Conference in Colorado. I had hoped to post daily updates, but a day at the NSGIC Conference is too long, and exhausting, to promote evening blogging. So I will play "catch-up."

Wednesday started with updates from NASCIO and MAPPS, two valued partners of NSGIC. Eric Sweden, NASCIO's Enterprise Architect, reviewed the roles of the CIO and the GIO and connections between them. he highlighted some of the findings from the recent NASCIO issues brief "Where’s the Data? Show Me." MAPPS board member Brant Howard reviewed the organization's legislative priorities, the results of a recent member survey, and several concerns about terminology.

A panel of representatives from GITA, the state of Washington, Iowa, Idaho, Florida and Vermont discussed state and regional strategic plan efforts under the 50 States Initiative.

GIS Coordinators from Texas and Georgia gave a joint presentation on a new effort to craft a "Geospatial Maturity Assessment" that state's can use to gauge their progress in achieving a fully function State Spatial Data Infrastructure.

That was followed by a quick tour of the new Utah GIS Portal.

After lunch, Virginia GIS Coordinator Dan Widner moderated a "Transportation for the nation" session that featured presentations from the states of Washington and new York and from representatives of NAVTECH and TeleAtlas.

Geospatial Preparedness Committee head Jon Gottsegen, of Colorado, moderated a session on using GIS data and tools to manage and fight wildfires. It included presentations from the USGS, a front-line fire-fighter, and the state of Arizona.

ESRI's Pat Cummins led a discussion of state-federal coordination efforts to build the NSDI that included presentations from the Department of the Interior and the state of Colorado. That was followed by a session on map services and state-local data exchanges featuring presentations from New York and Maryland.

Thursday, the final day of the conference, started with a presentation on the USGS' National Map customer survey. Larry Sugarbaker explained his survey process and gave some details on the results from the survey, expanding on the report he gave for the Summer 2008 Edition of NSGIC News (PDF; see page 7).

A NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council panel, with help from two federal purchasing officers, presented an overview of both QBS and "best value" contracting.

Representatives from Massachusetts and California presented different methodologies to use GIS tools to help promote statewide broadband infrastructure.

A panel that included the state of Minnesota and the EPA and USGS discussed state and federal collaboration to maintain and update the National Hydrography Dataset.

Following lunch, NSGIC held the second part of its formal business meeting and adjourned into a private "State Caucus" to hammer-out positions and concerns to guide the organization's efforts in the coming year.

Stay tuned to the NSGIC Blog for more details from the Conference, including the results of the NSGIC election the posting of all (we hope) of the presentations from the 2008 Conference.

NSGIC Conference Report 2

Tuesday (day 3) of the NSGIC Annual Conference began with a presentation by Dr. Steven Corbett, of Loma Linda University, on the Advanced Emergency Geographical Information System (AEGIS). AEGIS is a GIS-enabled emergency management application that brings dependable situational awareness to the managers of emergency operations and to the front-line responders.

NSGIC President Cy Smith (Oregon) gave an overview of the proposed Strategic Framework for the National Spatial data Infrastructure (NSDI). The proposal includes six strategies:

• Fully implement and maintain fifty state-level Spatial Data Inventories (SSDIs).
• Create a functional governance structure.
• Enable more "For the Nation" initiatives such as the Imagery for the Nation Initiatives now gaining traction.
• Implement a national funding strategy.
• Improve advocacy for and communication about the NSDI.develop and implement a tech strategy to achieve SSDI and NSDI
• Develop and implement a technical strategy to enable both state and national spatial data infrastructures.

Following the NSDI discussion, the first of two NSGIC business meetings were held. This one featured annual reports from the several NSGIC committees and presentation of a number of awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award to Ted Koch (Wisconsin).

Following lunch, Will Craig (Minnesota) led a panel discussion of lessons learned from efforts to create statewide address data sets. Panelists shared success, failures, and advice from efforts to create address data for West Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Indiana, and Virginia. Utah's Bert Granberg, blogging from the front row (on the right), has a nice, detailed write-up of this session.

A panel of NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council members held a discussion about enterprise licensing and data licensing. Many states are now working with software vendors and imagery contractors to take advantage of licensing.

Zsolt Nagy (North Carolina) led a panel discussion on archiving digital data. The panel included representatives from archiving and GIS organizations in North Carolina, Utah, and Kentucky as well as from the Library of Congress.

Ted Koch (Wisconsin) and Vickie Lucas (USGS) gave an update on progress on the Imagery for the Nation initiative. They reviewed actions by IFTN committee and support for the idea recently voiced by the US Secretary of the Interior.

The day ended with a BBQ picnic and bonfire at a nearby stables. There was a heavy rain shower, but it coincided with the eating and chatting portion of the evening, which took place in a tent. After dinner, the rain stopped and the crowd gathered around the fire for a loose, rambling bluegrass concert by Denver's Long Road Home.

NSGIC Conference Report 1

The 2008 NSGIC Conference started on Sunday, September 7, with a morning Board Meeting and continued into the afternoon with a State Members Caucus meeting at which the states shared ideas, concerns and plans for the conference and the coming year. After a "meet the candidates dinner," at which those running for the Board and for the position of President-Elect had a chance to introduce themselves to the members. Afterwards, the Coastal States Caucus held an evening meeting.

The more formal start to the conference was on Monday, September 8, with a welcome from NSGIC president Cy Smith and from the conference "host," Jon Gottsegen, of Colorado. The balance of the morning was given over to a Roll Call of the states at which lead delegates for each state, and representatives of sponsors and corporate partners, gave short updates on their activities.

Lunch breakout sessions focused on the update of the national metadata standard and on using geospatial data to help with emergency preparedness efforts.

After lunch, Colorado CIO Mike Locatis gave a keynote address. Mr. Locatis was brought in by a new state Governor and assigned the task of building a statewide IT infrastructure out of what had become a series of stove-piped and separate agency-specific IT sections. He outlined his efforts to centralize those functions that should be centralized in order to free-up agency CIO's to focus more on their own agency lines of business. He pointed to GIS support and architecture as IT infrastructure needed by all agencies.

Several of the NSGIC members who are also members of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) discussed the early efforts of the Committee and future plans.

After the board and President-Elect candidates made formal presentations to the membership, the whole large group trooped outside for the traditional group photo. This year, the photographer brought his own lift to get the elevation needed to capture the whole crowd.

After a short break, members of the NSGIC Outreach Committee gave a presentation on the Federal Coordination Factors model (PDF) that NSGIC has been working on to help state GIS Coordinators improve their relationship with federal partners.

A panel of experts from Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.; 3001, Inc.; Sanborn; and Surdex Corporation discussed issues of data storage and dissemination for large orthophotography and LiDAR projects. the discussion included a look at the realities of growing file sizes and the demands on staff that a successful project can generate.

That session closed the formal plenary session for the day. NSGIC Board members met after that with representatives of Platinum Sponsors and later, following a Sponsor Reception and dinner, with the NSGIC Corporate leadership Council to discuss future partnership efforts and ways to bring more private sector partners into NSGIC.

So You Are Planning a Trip to Colorado?

National Public Radio this morning ran a story on things to do in Denver. It is aimed at the Democratic National Convention next week but contains some information of use to those of us who will be out there in September to attend the NSGIC Annual Conference in Keystone, Colorado (about 70 miles from downtown Denver, as the rental car drives).

The NPR story also has a few notes on how to avoid altitude sickness. A key concept is to stay hydrated; the area has a very dry climate.

To compensate for the climate, Honigman says most people should drink 24 to 36 ounces more water than normal.

That's the clear liquid found in pitchers evenly spaced-out along the tables in the main plenary conference room.

I have this vision of Rick Memmel standing at the front of the room instructing all of the nation's GIS leaders to take a big drink of water before going out for a break.

Register Now for NSGIC 2008

Registration is now open for NSGIC's 2008 Annual Conference in Keystone, Colorado.

The conference is set to run from September 7 through 11 and will feature a wide-ranging discussion of issues of import to state GIS Coordinators, local and federal agencies, and their private-sector partners.

Among the major subjects tentatively scheduled to be addressed are:

• Progress on Imagery for the Nation
• Improving addressing and transportation data
• State/federal partnerships to manage hydrography data
  
• Factors for better coordination with and among federal agencies
• USGS "National Map" planning

Members of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council will offer panel discussions on subjects such as:

• Handling the large volumes of data now available from digital sensors and LiDAR projects
• Approaches to enterprise licensing of data and software
• QBS and Best-Value contracting

NSGIC conferences are traditionally fast-paced and very active, with meetings starting early in the day and running well into the evenings. State and local GIS coordinators mingle with federal agency staff, sponsors and vendors in an open and friendly gathering at which as much is learned in the hallways as in the meeting rooms.

Registration is $450 for NSGIC members and $650 for non-members before August 8. After August 8 it will be $535 for members and $735 for non-members. Late registration (after August 29) will be $635 for members and $835 for non-members.

Those in the geospatial industry who are interested in spending time with some of the top GIS executives in state governments should consider becoming one of the sponsors of the NSGIC conference. NSGIC sponsors are an integral part of the discussion at each NSGIC conference and can have input into the thinking that guides GIS policy among the states.

And, on a more personal note, the NSGIC crowd is open, welcoming and great group to get to know. Effective GIS coordination is a community-based endeavor; NSGIC models the sort of community-building effort that many states are working to achieve.

Farm Bill and Privacy

In a recent post on his blog, Spatial Law, Kevin Pomfret announces a detail from the recent Farm Bill's conference report that seems to prohibit the Department of Agriculture from disclosing spatial information that it collects, in direct contravention of a recent court case around this issue. He specifically mentions Section 1619(b)(2)(B) of the conference report. Having only recently learned a little about these political devices while at the 2008 Mid-Year meeting in Annapolis, I wonder if NSGIC might want to look into this further. After all our work to encourage the acquisition of standardized, nationwide imagery on a consistent and predictable schedule, it would be a tragedy to have a conference report (sound a little like a signing statement?) undo those efforts without a fight.

I hope I am not making too much of this.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Monday Morning Keynote Speaker

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of reports from the NSGIC Mid-Year Conference, in Annapolis. I'll try to report on as much of this conference as I can, but please understand that this gathering is a marathon and I am a tired old man. (Okay, a tired young man)

The Monday morning Keynote speaker was Maryland CIO Elliot Schlanger. He's new to that post but fulfilled a similar role for Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley when Mr. O'Malley was Mayor of Baltimore.

Mr. Schlanger noted that the issue is not technology invention; it is people and process. And, he said, GIS is one of government's greatest business enablers and decision-making tools.

Mr. Schlanger was an early user of ComStat/CityStat. ComStat was developed by a New York City police officer to allocate officers and resources to where the crime was occurring. It was a success and Baltimore adopted and adapted the idea as CityStat. They used it for crime analysis and expanded the model to other city management needs, such as potholes, infrastructure, and housing rehabilitation.

It served as a real-time performance measurement tool.

Now Mr. O'Malley is Governor and has ramped up CityStat to a "StateStat." Maryland is using it to track crime and service needs and in land-use planning and land preservation.

Among the problems they have identified in trying to bring GIS and traditional IT together are many that most GIS coordinators are familiar with. They have seen some silo-ing and separation of GIS data and users from IT agencies. They also noted a lack of cohesiveness bewteen some state agencies and among levels of government. And there is a disconnect with the customers.

But, e noted, the objectives of both IT and GIS leaders are the same: capability, consolidation, interoperability, and standards.

So Maryland wants to combine traditional IT and traditional GIS to create an enterprise-wide system. There are common challenges and issues:

• Managing state and local data and delivery systems
• Finding ways to resource enterprise GIS.
• Statewide licensing of GIS software applications.
• The need for standards and policies and guidelines that work for all.
• How to sufficiently build the IT infrastructure to work with all of this.
• Deciding what sort of governance will work best.
• And how to pay for all this capability in tough fiscal times.

There were several questions from the audience about the current discussion in Maryland to create a new cabinet-level IT agency. That is now under consideration and Mr. Schlanger is likely to retain the CIO post if hat is accomplished.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.